From Jedadiah Smith National State Park we drove inland to Klamath Falls. It is strange but as soon as you cross a state line there is definitely a different feel to the place even though there aren't any physical barriers. As we drove across the 66 we even got a dusting of snow and could see it gathering on the mountains around us. On arrival at Klamath Falls we found out it was the first snow fall of the year. We decided to check out the Crater Lake National Park website and the web cam showed snow at the car park.

Undeterred, the next morning we had a hearty breakfast at Denny's and then hit the road to Crater Lake. The scenery was beautiful. We drove past Upper Klamath Lake and then we were surrounded by mountains and farm land. As we climbed higher and entered the national park we saw a dusting of snow on the ground. It was alluring. We arrived at the Rim Village visitor center and took a stroll to the view point overlooking the lake. The lake is in a basin surrounded by 2000 foot cliffs

. The colour of the lake was such a spectacular blue and in the shallows at the lake verge you could see the clarity of the water. There is road called Rim Drive that circles the lake so we headed west to Watchman Peak, a 1.4 mile round trip hike with a 500 foot elevation and the trail was covered in snow. It was a great hike with a spectacular viewpoint over the lake. We stayed up the top for about 45 minutes just soaking it all in and speaking to a fellow New Zealand couple from Tauranga.

We followed Rim Drive right around the lake stopping off at many of the viewpoints. We decided the next day we would come back to tackle Mount Scott on route to Portland. Mount Scott hike is a 5 mile round trip with a 1 500 foot elevation. Because it was a cloudy day there weren't many people around and we got to the top without seeing another person. It was so nice to be at the top feeling like we were the only two people out there in the wilderness. Of course with snow lying around I had to throw a snowball at Adi and run as fast as possible back down the track. Unfortunately he did get his own back! On the way down we encountered 2 other groups of people so we were really glad we had the time to ourselves at the top.

The drive to Portland made me feel like a kid again as we encountered the first full rainbow I had seen in years and we even drove through the end of a rainbow...but no pot of gold! Next stop Portland.